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Administering a PC in a Vacation Rental Home?

Posted by Cliff on from the ammenities-and-security-nightmares dept.

mrn121 asks: "Some relatives of mine are preparing their beach house for rental, and they have asked me to assist in setting up some of the on-site technology. One of my ideas was to add a computer with high-speed internet access to the house, but security issues may be overwhelming. I have administered campus computing labs in the past, so I am familiar with locking systems down, but I am curious about what level of security readers might suggest, and how to go about achieving an appropriate balance between security and usability for such an application. On one hand, I don't want renters to clutter the computer with software and useless bookmarks, but on the other hand, I don't want the system to be utterly useless. One major difference between this computer and a lab computer is that I will not have access to the machine for the entire summer, while the house is being rented."

4 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Windows XP by Nasarius · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you're going to do it with Windows, use XP and let everyone create their own limited account. All the "clutter" goes into their personal storage, not the whole system.

    --
    LOAD "SIG",8,1
  2. Multiple options by notsoclever · · Score: 2, Informative
    You could just provide the pipe and an 802.11 access point and have it up to the renters to just bring their own laptop or whatever. Then you also don't have to worry about the hardware getting messed up (since you could just lock the access point and modem up in the crawlspace or whatever).

    Or, you could do as another poster suggested and just make an install image for periodic recovery using Ghost.

    Or, you could just figure that any renters who *need* a computer will be able to provide for themselves.

    --
    There are 10 kinds of people: ones who understand ternary, ones who don't, and ones who think this joke is about binary
  3. This may be more work than you want.... by g1zmo · · Score: 2, Informative

    ....but how about leaving an ssh server running and remotely add a new user every time it's rented and delete that user when they're done. With a nicely set up /etc/skel it should pretty seamless.

    --
    I have found there are just two ways to go.
    It all comes down to livin' fast or dyin' slow.     -REK, Jr.
  4. Probably the easiest way... by chrispyman · · Score: 3, Informative

    If it's a Windows machine, I'd suggest putting DeepFreeze on it. It basically resets the computer back to its original state whenever you reboot the box. I've used this on many student workstations and it works like a charm. Unfortunately it won't stop some smartypants from booting off a cd and installing Linux or something like that ;-)